The Innocents, The Lost, and The Dawn: LPOP sequel
by CierraLuv97
Summary: Scooby is missing. A ghost that is too well-known for comfort is haunting Wirrawee. Nightmares plague Daphne's dreams. And everything becomes a race against time when they find a clue that points to the one person whom has the ability to break every one.


_**Finally. What you've all been waiting for (well, in my mind, anyway): the sequel to Scooby Doo! The Last Piece of the Puzzle! Originally, I was going to wait a lot longer before starting this. You know, give me some freedom to try out some new stories. And I did, but… I found myself itching to write this. And so here we are.**_

_**Some of you might have noticed that I left a ton of strings loose in the first one, which is why I needed such a long epilogue. When I went back and read my work, I was incredibly frustrated by it. I'm not trying to get sympathy or anything, but oh my God, it made me want to pull my hair out. But this time, things will be more carefully planned out, so don't you worry. **_

_**If this is your first time reading one of my pieces, first of all, welcome and thank you. Any support is good support. However, this will not make any sense if you haven't read the first story in this series, **_Scooby Doo! The Last Piece of The Puzzle_**. Read that first - our narrator, Daphne, is witty and charming and is a fresh voice from all the other Daphne's (the ones who are all either total female dogs, or wayy too exaggerated), if I may say so myself. Her narration is one of my favorite parts. **_

_**Also, I need suggestions for a series title. Got any ideas? Send them to me! The series will be at least a trilogy, is told from Daphne's point of view, and starts with Scooby Doo! The Last Piece of the Puzzle. I will choose one of your ideas! And if you win, you will recieve a fabulous prize: the chance to be featured in one of my stories - maybe even this one! So start clicking away and send those suckers right here to CierraLuv97!**_

_**So, I hope you guys like this. Give me feedback! It's what fuels these stories! And, if you like this, read my other stories - a lot of them haven't been getting a lot of reviews and it's frustrating. Everyone who is reviewing them and giving me feedback, my sincerest thank you's go to you. **_

12:00. The witching hour.

Not that I believe in such things, though you'd think I would, in my line of work. Vampires and werewolves and zombie cheerleaders and all that nonsense. In real life, though, vampires and werewolves are just hot guys with a _lot_ of make-up on, and normal cheerleaders are just as scary as zombie-fied ones.

The numbers on my clock changed to 12:01. Even though just a minute had passed, I scrunched my toes in impatience. The gang had better get here soon. I was getting tired, and I was scared to fall asleep. I could just get up and turn on the light. That would solve the problem, except that fear kept me huddled on the covers.

This would be the third time this week that we'd gone searching for Scooby, but the first time looking for him at night. Fred thought it would be a good idea, and the rest of us hadn't hesitated to agree. We were all willing to do anything in order to find him. For Shaggy, that meant leaving a bowl of steaming hot chili untouched in order to go searching for Scooby. For Velma, it meant missing the science fair. For Fred, it meant skipping the football game that could put them that much closer to state finals. For me, it meant sneaking around my strict, overbearing, completely and _totally_ unfair parents.

Which was another reason the night thing was good. I didn't have to lie to my parents at all. I just slip in and out, unnoticed. Hopefully.

Now that I thought about it, sneaking out at night meant I got less sleep, and that was yet another pro. Ever since the Estrada mystery, where we had all been nearly killed by a crazy old man who was fishing for revenge, I haven't had a calm, peaceful night of rest because of the nightmares. It was driving me insane. If it wasn't so horrifying, I'd be pulling my hair out as we speak - theoretically, of course. Me without hair was almost as scary as the nightmares.

I rolled over and glanced at my clock. 12:04. I sighed and shivered, suddenly cold. I curled up into a ball, and my eyelids fluttered…. Fred would wake me up when he got here. Even though I knew I wouldn't enjoy it, I succumbed to the exhaustion.

Next thing I knew, I was standing in the same tunnels I'd stood in the night we had nearly died. Fred was calling my name, and I was desperately searching for him.

I burst out of the tunnel onto the rain-soaked cliff that me and Fred and jumped off of. But, instead of the usual Fred, Scooby was clinging to cliff with every bit of strength he had. I ran forward to pull him up, but he slipped before I could reach him…. and then the ground was shaking, and Fred was calling my name again…

"Daphne!" Fred's voice was suddenly louder, and my eyes snapped open. He was in my room, shaking me desperately, worry shining in his big blue eyes. "Are you okay?"

I stared at him for a moment, my breath coming much too quick, until reality finally set in. I wrapped my arms around him and tried to control my wildly beating heart. "Bad dream."

"Yeah, I could tell from the way you were muttering 'No, no!' in your sleep. Are you okay?" Fred asked, pushing me away so he could see my face.

I hesitated. I could tell him…

"Peachy," I lied.

Fred didn't look convinced, but he didn't push it. "C'mon, let's go. This would look _really_ bad if you dad walked in."

I giggled, letting the bad sitcom-ness of _that _situation wash away the nightmare. Oh, Fred. I yanked off my covers and grabbed my Ugg boots and sweatshirt from the corner of my room. Like the genius I am, I'd slept in my sweatpants and a t-shirt from the school production of Wicked, so I was all set. Except for my hair, of course, but a hair thingy can solve that problem easily. Thank you, Rommy Revson, for inventing the hair thingy, or whatever you call it.

Three seconds later, we were climbing down the ladder that I'd hooked onto my balcony a few days ago. It was one of those ones that you see on the side of pirate ships, except this one was clear and almost impossible to see at night. I'd found it in my garage, and figured that if I was going to sneak out, I might as well do it in style. Plus, Fred needed a way to get into my room. Actually, now that I think of it, it could work for other things… I'm sure Fred would've got a kick out of that train of thought.

When we got down, however, Fred went all smart and found a problem with my plan. "Won't they be able to see it when it gets lighter out?"

"Crap!" I hissed. I glanced at the ladder. "Um… I'll just take it down." I yanked as hard as I could on the ladder. It didn't work. "C'mon!" I yanked again, and this time the entire thing fell onto my head, along with something that felt like a potted plant. "Ow…"

"Are you okay?" Fred asked, amused. I could tell that he was grinning away, even in the dark.

"Shut up." I muttered. "Let's just get in the car, I've got dirt in my hair." Fred chuckled and kissed me quickly - for the record, _quickly_ does not mean that my heart doesn't skip a beat, or four - before dragging me in the general direction of the van. At least he opened my door for me. _That_ was gentlemanly of him.

"Wow, Daphne, what happened?" Velma asked sarcastically when I got in. "Fred kiss you again?" That was blunt, even for Velma, which showed just how much Scooby was pulling on us. The only people who's relationship with the other wasn't fraying was probably me and Fred, and only because we needed each other just right now, more than we ever had during a non-life-threatening situation .

I glared at her before flipping open the mirror above me and starting to pull the dirt bits out of my hair. "I got hit with a small potted plant and/or a ladder."

"Can we just go?" Shaggy mumbled from the back. The ridiculing remark that Velma was probably about to make and the sharp yet clever retort that I would have come with died in our throats. If the rest of us were missing Scooby, Shaggy was dying for him. It was like severing a mother from her child; ever since Scooby Doo disappeared without a trace, I don't think I've seen him smile once. The worst part was that Shaggy stopped saying like. It was like he was another person. Shaggy had unconsciously reminded us of our mission. We needed to stick together to find Scooby.

Fred nodded, gripping the wheel tighter. "I thought we'd check Stafford first."

I glanced at him in surprise. All my life I've heard about Stafford Road - it was really more than one road, but do you honestly think anyone's going to name them all - along with warnings to stay away from it. It's the bad part of town, the part where old drunk guys and alley cats and …. and _bad people _hang out. I've never been there, and I had been planning on it staying like that. Until now.

"Isn't that a little dangerous?" Velma said, hinting at what had just been flying through my head.

"Exactly where the kind of people who'd kidnap Scooby would hideout," Shaggy pointed out grimly. "Let's go."

"Can't we check somewhere else right now and go back there during the day?" I half-pleaded. This was starting to sound like something disturbingly close to one of my nightmares. "Bad things don't happen when it's light out."

"Please," Velma scoffed.

"Well, it's true!" I protested. "We are always almost killed at night… wait… yeah, always at night."

"Which is why no one will suspect we are coming now," Fred reasoned. I sighed in defeat and concentrated on squelching the worm of worry inside of me, the one that was slowly but steadily growing.

A few minutes later, we were driving through a neighborhood which looked like it had been thrown into the blender and then roughly taped back together. This must be Stafford.

Fred parked behind a dumpster, in a quiet, dark alley. We all silently climbed out, studying the part of Coolsville that no one wants us to see.

"Okay gang, let's spl-"

"Please, don't say split up," I interrupted him quickly. "Can't we stay together, just this once?"

Fred was quiet for a moment, then said, "Okay. Let's just stay together." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Velma visibly relax.

We all peered around the corner cautiously. The street looked exactly like a run-down, crime infested (for Coolsville, anyway), dirty street should. Trash was everywhere, clothes lines were hanging in between gray apartments, and shadows haunted the places like flies on meat.

"How are we going to do this?" I whispered. "I mean, if we're going to search for Scooby in possibly the scariest place in Coolsville, we can't just go around yelling his name."

"True," Velma muttered. "The kidnappers - if they are here - would just run away with him."

"We could talk really loudly," Shaggy murmured. "Then he'd know we're here."

"Then we might get mistaken for drunk." Fred pointed out. "And I'm pretty sure that won't end well."

I shuddered. "I officially hate this place."

"I got it!" Velma cried.

"Got what?" Fred asked excitedly, his voice starting to veer towards loud.

"I don't know why we didn't think of it before," Velma mused. I got the feeling she was talking to herself at this point.

"Think of what?" Shaggy asked impatiently.

"I mean, honestly -"

"Velma!" I cried, louder than I should've. Something clattered to the ground in the alley.

"Shh!" Fred hissed, covering my mouth. We all were suddenly frozen solid, statues. I closed my eyes, so scared that I wanted to kneel down and throw up. That is what nightmares do to you. You become even more scared of scary situations, because you know you'll have to revisit them in your sleep.

After a few minutes, we all slowly melted back to motion. "Sorry," I breathed.

"Maybe it was a cat," Velma suggested, not very convincingly.

"Whatever it was," Fred said, his eyes scanning the alley, "It's either gone or gone. So, I think Velma should just tell us her idea so we can go search for Scooby."

"Well, you know that spray Shaggy had made for Scooby for his birthday, the one that makes everything smell like fourth of July barbeques?" Velma asked. We nodded. "Well, it's a one of a kind, and Scooby has an excellent sense of smell. We spray it everywhere we search in this joint -"

"And Scooby knows we're here, and let's us know where he is!" Shaggy finished. "That's genius, even for you, Velma!" I smiled - for a moment, things felt like they always had. He raced back to the van to get the spray.

A few moments later, we were walking down the middle of Stafford street. Shaggy was spraying everything like we had an hour to live.

"This had better work," Velma muttered. "If he doesn't bark, it may just mean he isn't here," I said, before anyone could come up with worse theories.

"Guys!" Fred suddenly stopped in his tracks. "Look!" On the ground was a muddy footprint. To be more specific, a paw print. To be ridiculously exact, Scooby's paw print.

"That's definitely Scooby's paw print," Shaggy cried. "I'd know it from a mile away."

"Not to be a negative Nelly or anything, but there's only one," Velma said. "That doesn't really help us."

"But it shows he was in the area!" Shaggy insisted. "This is great!"

"Where do we go from here?" Fred mused. A heated debate arose out of nowhere. I wisely stayed silent, which is maybe why I was the one who heard the talking.

It wasn't shouting, but it was definitely something. I frowned and took a small step away from the gang to hear better. They didn't notice.

"Yes, I'm certain," A man's voice said. A clear, perfectly articulated man's voice which didn't belong in a place like this. "They know…. It wasn't a good idea, and you know it…. Right, that's the only option. I could do it right now…. Yes, I suppose that's true." He must've been talking on the phone. "We'll have to take it more slowly, another time. Get the dog ready. I'll be there in a few minutes."

The word _dog_ was enough. Without thinking, I hurried toward the alley, already imagining the reunion with Scooby Doo.

When I got to the edge of the alley, I hesitated. The _without thinking _part had caught up to me. This is usually the part of the horror movie where the girl goes alone into the basement and doesn't come out. I glanced back at the gang in hesitation. They were still arguing. Any minute they'd realize I was gone, then they'd convince me not to go into the alley by myself, and I'd feel like an idiot. Because if it were Fred or Velma or Shaggy, no one would have cared.

That thought got me going again. I was going to prove myself when I walked out of here with Scooby. I walked straight into the alley, head held high.

I guess the _without thinking_ hadn't totally gotten caught up, because before I could take two steps someone grabbed my arms and threw a hand over my mouth. But not before I could scream.

"Shut up!" That same man's voice said again, only this time not calmly. I wish I could've seen his face, but he smartly stayed out of view. "Say anything and the dog dies."

Well, he made it easy for me.

_**Omigoodness, done with the first chapter! Yay! If you hate it, love it, nuteral about it, tell me! Give me your honest opinion! Thanks!~Cierra :D**_


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